Swamp Palace water levels do not drain when you exit the overworld screen (except for the first room)

No Logic

No logic is applied whatsoever. Items can be anywhere. It may be impossible to get items, although due to the strength of glitches, it is extremely rare for games to be unbeatable. This setting will generally require extensive use of glitches which are excluded from other logics (which include EG, Door Glitches and Overworld Bunny Revival).

Item Placement

Basic

This setting is aimed at new players or people looking for a more casual experience. Logical restrictions are in place to prevent items being placed in obscure locations which require niche knowledge to access (e.g. accessing Bumper Cave ledge without the Hookshot). Other logical restrictions also ensure excessively difficult execution is not required in order to progress. For example if you need to beat a late-game Dark World dungeon you will always have access to some sword and defense upgrades somewhere in the world.

Advanced

This setting is aimed at experienced players. The intention of this setting is to maximize glitchless item placement reach. Dark rooms with torches are considered accessible with the Fire Rod; other dark rooms remain logically accessible with the Lamp. No other consideration is given to the obscurity of item placements or the level of execution required to access locations. The expectation is a player choosing this setting is decently familiar and practiced with the original game.

Dungeon Item Shuffle

When maps are shuffled outside dungeons the Overworld map will not display dungeon prizes without dungeon maps. However, maps are always logically required for dungeon completion in both Basic and Advanced item placements. Note that a dungeon’s boss can contain that dungeon’s map.

Standard

All dungeons items are locked to their respective dungeons but are randomized within each dungeon.

Maps/Compasses

Maps and compasses are no longer locked to their respective dungeons (although may still end up there). All keys remain locked to their respective dungeons.

Maps/Compasses/Small Keys

Maps, compasses and small keys are no longer locked to their respective dungeons (although may still end up there). All big keys remain locked to their respective dungeons.

Keysanity

Maps, compasses, small keys and big keys are no longer locked to their respective dungeons (although may still end up there).

Accessibility

100% Inventory

This setting ensures all inventory items can be obtained but retains the possibility for certain keys to be unobtainable. For example non-required big keys may be in big chests and certain small keys may be locked behind key doors (which you could lock yourself out of depending on how you use small keys). In practice you will be able to reach almost every location with this setting.

100% Locations

This setting ensures all 216 locations can always be reached regardless of how inefficiently keys are used within dungeons. Specifically, big keys cannot be in big chests and certain chests behind key doors cannot contain small keys.

Beatable

This setting only ensures the game can be beaten. You may be locked out of non-required items (e.g. Fire Rod if it is not needed to complete the goal) and even non-required dungeons.

Goal

Goal

Defeat Ganon

This setting requires full completion of Ganon’s Tower in addition to defeating Ganon. The number of required crystals for each depends on the requirements chosen.

Fast Ganon

This setting only requires defeating Ganon and does not require completion of Ganon’s Tower. For this to work the hole leading to Ganon has been made permanently accessible (except if entrances are randomized). The number of required crystals depends on the requirements chosen.

All Dungeons

This setting requires full completion of all dungeons. This includes the 3 Light World pendant dungeons, the 7 Dark World crystal dungeons, Agahnim’s Tower and Ganon’s Tower.

Master Sword Pedestal

This setting requires collection of the 3 pendants in order to pull the Triforce from the pedestal in the Lost Woods.

Triforce Pieces

The Triforce has been shattered into 30 pieces and scattered throughout Hyrule! You must collect 20 of the 30 pieces and take them to Murahdahla to receive the Triforce. Who is Murahdahla I hear you ask? Why, he is obviously the younger brother of Sahasrahla and Aginah! Back from his vacation in Lorule you can find him hanging out around Hyrule Castle courtyard.

Open Tower

This settings lets you choose the number of crystals required to open Ganon’s Tower. If 0 is chosen then the dungeon is freely accessible. If Random is chosen there will be a sign outside Ganon’s Tower informing you of how many crystals are required. In Inverted this sign will be outside Hyrule Castle accordingly.

Ganon Vulnerable

This settings lets you choose the number of crystals required to make Ganon vulnerable to your attacks. If 0 is chosen then he can be beaten as soon as you can reach him! If Random is chosen then there will be a sign on the Pyramid informing you of how many crystals are required. In Inverted this sign will be outside Hyrule Castle accordingly.

Gameplay

World State

Standard

This setting is the closest to the original game. It retains the initial prologue of rescuing Zelda in Hyrule Castle and delivering her to the Sanctuary. This must be completed before you are free to explore Hyrule. Your uncle is guaranteed to give you an item which lets you clear the prologue (although not necessarily a sword). You are given a light cone for navigating the dark rooms of the Sewers even without the Lamp (although any future visits to other dark rooms, except for the Sewers, will be in total darkness until you find the Lamp).

Open

This setting starts as if the initial prologue has already been beaten. Zelda has already been rescued and you are free to start in either Link’s House or at the Sanctuary. All the chests in Hyrule Castle have not been opened so you must decide when and whether to visit.

Inverted

In this setting Link starts in the Dark World and must navigate his way to the Light World in order to defeat Ganon! There are several major changes for this to work:

Ganon’s Tower and Agahnim’s Tower have traded places.

Ganon has abandoned the Pyramid and is hiding underneath Hyrule Castle.

All portals now take you from the Dark World to the Light World.

Link will be a bunny in the Light World without the Moon Pearl.

The Magic Mirror now transports you from the Light World to the Dark World.

The crystals now unlock the door to Hyrule Castle Tower (not Ganon’s Tower).

However there are other modifications to the game world which were required in order to ensure this concept worked properly:

Link’s House and the Bomb Shop have traded places.

The flute only works in the Dark World and must still be activated in Kakariko.

Lots of terrain in the Light World has been modified in order to retain accessibility without being able to mirror from the Dark World.

The Death Mountain cave system has changed considerably. It is now possible to access Dark World Death Mountain from the Dark World mainland.

The Old Man on Death Mountain is now lost wandering in the Dark World and you will have to return him to his home in the Light World.

Dark World Death Mountain now has some stairs allowing access to Ganon’s Tower and East Dark World Death Mountain.

Ice Palace is now accessible directly from the Dark World.

Turtle Rock is now accessible by jumping from its tail!

Remember that bunny Link can use the Book of Mudora, as well as talk to NPC’s and collection freestanding items. Inverted games can be really difficult so we recommend starting with some of the other world states.

Retro

This setting is a throwback to the original The Legend of Zelda. The main concept includes:

Rupee Bow

They no longer use arrows for ammo and instead uses rupees!

The first Progressive Bow only shoots Wooden Arrows.

The second Progressive Bow can shoot Wooden Arrows and Silver Arrows.

However neither Bow can be used until a Rupee Quiver has been purchased.

The Rupee Quiver costs 80 rupees and only appears in one randomly chosen shop!

Shops

Five shops out of a possible nine will be randomly chosen to contain new stock. This does not include the Bomb Shop or the Potion Shop. One of these shops will contain the Rupee Quiver at a price of 80 rupees. Additionally, small keys will be available in multiple shops for a price of 100 rupees and there is no limit on how many may be purchased.

Small Keys

Small keys are no longer dungeon-specific and can be used to open key doors in any dungeon. They are no longer locked to their respective dungeons and may be found anywhere (e.g. in the overworld). Keys under pots and keys dropped by enemies remain unchanged. Ten keys have been removed from the item pool (fifteen on harder difficulties). Big keys, maps and compasses remain dungeon-specific and have not been randomized outside of their respective dungeons.

Take-Any Caves

Five randomly chosen single-entrance caves/houses (which do not ordinarily lead to an item location) now lead to take-any caves. Four of these caves offer players the choice between a Heart Container and a Blue Potion refill, and the fifth leads to a sword upgrade (which has been taken from the item pool). This means there are only 3 swords to be found in the regular item pool. The Heart Containers are bonus ones in addition to the ones existing in the item pool. However it is not possible to have more than a total of 20 hearts. The Blue Potion refills require you to already have an empty bottle.

Entrance Shuffle

This setting randomizes where entrances lead. For example walking into Kakariko shop might take you to a fairy fountain, and so on. Different entrance types are grouped together and then each group is randomized. How entrances are grouped depends on which shuffle you choose. Overworld transitions are never randomized.

All entrances remain coupled. This means exiting one of these caves/dungeons will take you back to the entrance from which it was entered.

All entrances for a given multi-entrance cave/dungeon are confined to appear within the same world (i.e. they do not connect the Light World and the Dark World).

Link’s House and the south-facing entrance leading to the back of Kakariko bar are not randomized. Note that on Inverted World State that Link’s House exits to a random overworld location (instead of at the Bomb Shop) and both Link’s House and the Bomb Shop are randomized.

None

No entrances are randomized. All entrances lead to their original locations.

Simple

This setting uses the highest number of entrance type groupings. This restricts how thoroughly different entrances are randomized with the intention of keeping things simple.

Single-Entrance Dungeons

All entrances are grouped and randomized with each other. This includes the final section of Skull Woods (leading to the boss) but does not include any other Skull Woods entrances.

Multi-Entrance Dungeons (excluding Skull Woods)

Each of the 4 entrances of Hyrule Castle, Desert Palace and Turtle Rock remain grouped together. Each group of 4 are randomized with each other using a static mapping. For example if Hyrule Castle and Desert Palace are randomized with each other, the main entrance of Desert Palace will lead to the main entrance of Hyrule Castle, the left entrance of Desert Palace will lead to the left entrance of Hyrule Castle, and so on. However Hyrule Castle is not randomized on Standard World State.

Skull Woods (excluding final dungeon entrance)

All entrances (including all of the holes) remain confined to the Skull Woods overworld region and are randomized with each other. Skull-entrances are randomized with skull-entrances; and holes are randomized with holes.

Single-Entrance Caves

All entrances are grouped and randomized with each other. This does not include any of Light World Death Mountain. Example: houses.

Multi-Entrance Caves

All entrances are grouped and randomized with each other. Locations that are originally spanned by two-entrance caves (e.g. Kakariko Elder’s House) will remain connected to each other via a two-entrance cave. This does not include any of Light World Death Mountain.

Light World Death Mountain

All entrances remain confined to the Light World Death Mountain overworld region and are randomized with each other. Note that the entrance to Death Mountain (via the cave where the Old Man is lost) is also not randomized.

Overworld Holes (excluding those in Skull Woods)

All holes are grouped and randomized with each other. Holes and their associated cave entrance remain paired together. For example falling in a hole and exiting will take you to the overworld cave associated with that hole, regardless of which interior rooms the hole led to.

Restricted

As in Simple except all non-dungeon entrances (including all single-entrance caves, all multi-entrance caves, and all of Light World Death Mountain) are grouped together and randomized with each other. This includes the entrance to Death Mountain.

Full

As in Restricted except all dungeons (including single-entrance and multi-entrance) are also grouped together with all non-dungeon entrances and randomized with each other.

Crossed

As in Full except caves and dungeons with multiple entrances are no longer confined to all appear within the same world. This means they can link the Light World to the Dark World.

Insanity

As in Crossed except all entrances and holes are decoupled from each other (excluding single-entrance caves and the Skull Woods overworld region). This means exiting the way you entered will take you somewhere entirely different. However all single-entrance caves can still only exit to the same location from which they were entered. All overworld holes are no longer paired. All Skull Woods entrances remain confined to the Skull Woods overworld region (excluding the final dungeon entrance).

Boss Shuffle

None

Bosses are not randomized. All bosses remain in their original dungeons.

Simple

All original bosses (except both Agahnim’s and Ganon) are randomized including the 3 Ganon’s Tower refights. Therefore the shuffle includes two sets of Armos Knights, Lanmolas’ and Moldorm. This means Ganon’s Tower can contain 3 random bosses!

Full

Same as Simple except the 3 bosses which appear twice are chosen randomly.

Random

All bosses are chosen entirely at random. You may see one boss multiple times and some bosses may not feature at all.

Enemy Shuffle

None

Enemies are not randomized. All enemies remain in their original locations.

Shuffled

All enemies are randomized but there are some caveats to note:

Not all enemies can appear everywhere due to game limitations.

Rooms where killing all enemies is required will never include enemies which need specific weapons to kill (e.g. Mimics requiring Bow, etc)

Thieves’ can now be killed.

Tile rooms are not randomized.

Enemies under bushes are not randomized.

Random

Same as Shuffled except enemies under bushes, as well as the percentage chance that they spawn an enemy, are also randomized. This may not seem like much of a difference but in practice it affects playability drastically. In addition tile rooms spawn tiles in random patterns and Thieves’ have a 50% chance for being killable or invincible.

Hints

Enable or disable hints which can be found on the telepathic tiles throughout the world.

Difficulty

Swords

Randomized

All four Progressive Swords are randomly shuffled into the game. If this setting is combined with Standard World State then your Uncle will always have one of the following:

Sword

Hammer

Bow + Full Arrow Refill

10 Bombs

Fire Rod + Full Magic Refill

Cane of Somaria + Full Magic Refill

Cane of Byrna + Full Magic Refill

If you run out of ammo or magic then a save and quit will partially refill you so that you may progress.

Assured

Link starts with a sword already equipped! Perhaps he hid it under his pillow?

Vanilla

All four swords are in their original game locations. These are:

Link’s Uncle

Master Sword Pedestal

Rescuing Blacksmith

Pyramid Faerie

Swordless

All swords are removed from the game and replaced with 20 rupees. Multiple changes have been made for this to work:

Ganon can be damaged with the Hammer.

Both Progressive Bows are always in the item pool.

The bat barrier outside Aghanim’s Tower can now be broken with the Hammer.

Medallions can only be used to open Misery Mire and Turtle Rock, or to progress through Ice Palace. They only work where their emblems indicate.

Swords have been replaced with copies of 20 rupees

Item Pool

Normal

Hard

Expert

Maximum Health

20

14

8

Heart Containers

11

7

3

Heart Pieces

24

16

8

Maximum Mail

Red

Green

Green

Maximum Sword

Gold

Tempered

Master

Maximum Shield

Mirror

Fire

Fighter’s

Maximum Bow

Silver

Normal

Normal

Maximum Bow (Swordless)

Silver

Silver

Silver

Arrow / Bomb Capacity Upgrades

7

0

0

Item Functionality

Normal

Hard

Expert

Potion Magic Refill

100%

50%

25%

Potion Hearts Refill

20

7

4

Bug Net Catches Faeries

Yes

No

No

Magic Powder on Bubbles

Faerie

Heart

Heart

Cape Magic Consumption Rate

Normal

2x

2x

Byrna Grants Invincibility

Yes

No

No

Boomerangs Stun Enemies

Yes

No

No

Hookshot Stuns Enemies

Yes

Yes

No

Silver Arrows are disabled everywhere except for in Ganon’s room.

No

Yes

Yes

Enemy Damage

Default

The damage dealt by enemies are not randomized.

Shuffled

The damage dealt by enemies are randomized between enemy types. For example the damage dealt by Octoroks and Ganon might be shuffled, meaning all Octoroks deal 8 hearts and Ganon only deals just 1 heart! Mail Upgrades still work as expected to reduce damage.

Random

The damage dealt by enemies is chosen randomly for each Mail Upgrade. This means it’s entirely random whether Mail Upgrades increase or decrease damage received. No mapping exists between different enemy types. All enemies could deal massive damage.

Enemy Health

Default

The health of enemies are not randomized.

Easy

All enemy health will be in the 1hp-4hp range (1-2 Fighter’s Sword slashes).

Hard

All enemy health will be in the 2hp-15hp range (1-8 Fighter’s Sword slashes). Note that on average enemies will have more health than in the original.

Expert

All enemy health will be in the 2hp-30hp range (1-15 Fighter’s Sword slashes). Almost all enemies will have considerably more health than in the original.

Cosmetic Settings (post generation)

Heart Speed

Change the speed of the beep when Link is low on health.

Play As

Change the sprite you play as (e.g. play as a tea cup instead of Link).

Menu Speed

Change the speed of opening and closing the item menu. This is not available for race ROMS.

Heart Color

Change the color of your hearts. Choices are restricted due to game limitations.

Background Music

Enable or disable the original background music. You do not have to disable this if you wish to use MSU-1 packs. If left enabled and using an MSU-1 pack then the original music will act as an SPC fallback and will only play should an MSU-1 track fail (i.e. instead of silence).

Item Quickswap

Allow items to be changed with the L and R buttons without opening the menu. This is not available for race ROMS (except when entrances are randomized).

Palette Shuffle

Randomizes the colour palettes within the game. This means everything can look extremely bizarre. Enable with caution!